Former Gov. George Ryan has already been released from the halfway house on Chicago’s West Side and will be confined at his Kankakee home until he completes his 6 ½-year sentence, according to his lawyer, former Gov. Jim Thompson.

Thompson said Ryan found out about the decision by the Bureau of Prison early this morning as he was being released from a federal prison camp in Terre Haute, Ind.

Ryan will not have to wear electronic monitors while under house arrest at his home, said Thompson, who wasn’t sure if Ryan, soon to be 79, would work.

Bureau of Prison spokesman Chris Burke said today Ryan did not receive special treatment in order to be released to home confinement.

Speaking from Ryan’s living room, his attorney Jim Thompson said Ryan was beaming and surrounded by his smiling grandchildren

“If you could see his and his grandkids’ smiling faces,” Thompson, himself a former governor, said by phone from Ryan’s home. “He is surrounded by happy faces.”

Ed Ross, a spokesman with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Washington D.C., said such quick a release, though, is not uncommon.

Ross said it was “very common” for elderly inmates to spend just a few hours in a halfway house. While at his home in Kankakee, Ryan will not be allowed to leave home during non-working hours and will remain “under the strict supervision of the Bureau of Prisons,” Ross said.

“The whole point of community corrections is to transition the individual back into their community. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis as to how much halfway house time … an individual needs,” Ross said.

Former Gov. Jim Thompson said his friend George Ryan “paid a severe price” when he was convicted and imprisoned. “The loss of his wife and brother while he was in the penitentiary, the loss of his pension, his office, his good name. That is a significant punishment.”

Ryan smiled tightly as he refused to answer questions from reporters. Ryan’s son, George Ryan Jr. and former Gov. Jim Thompson accompanied Ryan into the house.

After Ryan checked in, Thompson came back out and told reporters “today is another step in a long journey for George Ryan. . .He would like me to tell you he’s grateful to leave the penitentiary. He’s grateful also for the encouragement and support from many people. He has paid a severe price. The loss of his wife and brother while he was in the penitentiary, the loss of his pension, his office, his good name and 5 1/2 years of imprisonment. Now near 80 years old, that is a significant punishment. But he is going to go forward.”

Ryan left the prison early this morning and managed to escape the notice of media camped at the facility. The first indication that Ryan has been released was around 6:45 a.m. when he left a building down the street and started walking toward the halfway house.

His son put his left hand on his father and guided him out the door. Ryan kept his head down, his hands in his pockets as he talked to his son and walked slowly through the knot of TV cameras.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s halfway house release begins a new era for the Kankakee native. He’s expected to stay for a maximum of six months at the same Salvation Army where dozens of onetime politicos from Illinois made their transition back to freedom. They included former City Clerk James Laski and Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese.

Loren-Maltese didn’t sugarcoat her stay at the same venue.

“I was cleaning the bathrooms,” she said. “I thought it was horrible there — it reminded me of the high-security prison because of being locked in all the time.”

Laski, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to taking $48,000 in bribes, has few good memories of the place — an environment he called “dingy, cold and dark.”

“It’s not the most friendly place,” Laski told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday.

Laski, who went to the South Ashland facility in mid-2007 from a dormitory-type prison in West Virginia, described the buffet-style food as “fair to middling,” but a slight improvement over prison grub.

Laski recalled his first day at the halfway house, when he was required to introduce himself to various staff members and gather a signature from each of them.

“You run around like a little kid, getting signatures. . . . It’s silly,” said Laski, who lives on the Southwest Side and runs a consulting business with offices in Chicago and Miami.

I sincerely hope that there are other politicians out there who have actually learned something from George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich and that maybe, just maybe, chose not to take the paths that they did.

===Leroy, this is a prelude to a petitioning for a pardon and a job via his attorney with political connections…===

Yeah, um, the man did 5 1/2 years, what more do you want besides what a federal court convicted him, and what a federal judge sentenced him.

At 78, going on 79 in late Feb., you think “political connections” at this point in the game is going to make anything better? Geo. H. Ryan will just get his political connections are hooked up and be living the dream?

The man is broken, broke, lost his wife and brother, no pension, and at his age, what is the career longevity to build up something for “later”?

Good luck with the “politcal connections” and all being right as rain.

I don’t think he is a bad man or was even a bad governor. He came from a different era in politics, and unfortunately he hung on to the old ways for too long. He benefited more than he should have and has probably paid for it more than he should have. He is almost finished with his sentence, and I wish him and his family good luck.

It is quite obvious that he earned his punishment, since I stated a federal court convicted him and a federal judge sentenced him. I think when I posted that part too, I was making it clear the court system found him guilty, and I was NOT saying he was NOT guilty.

Yes, the same rules should apply as far as prison goes. But the Halfway House thing is just stupid. The point of it is to “train” you to reintigrate into society and give you some job skills. I hardly think George Ryan needs “job skills” at his age or with his background. A “one size fits all” approach is asinine. It would be nice if a little common sense would prevail. And I’m in no way defending the former Governor. He served his prison sentence. He’s almost 80. Send him home for pete’s sake and move on. It’s a waste of federal resources and time.

“It was awful,” Laski continued, “I kept asking who I had to bribe to get out of cleaning the bathrooms, and nobody was helpful - I never did find the bagman.”

Ryan needs to be in halfway house cleaning toliets like everyone else. He still doesnt admit he did anything wrong and boo hoo he lost some family while in prison. Just like every other convicted felon has lost family while serving their time. No sympathy from me. Met the man a few times. He was one of the most pompous, arrogant man I have ever met. Oh, and by the way ask him about the family that fried on the interstate during his watch as Secretary of State. Some of you will know what I mean. Like I said no sympathy from me.

There are people who commit crimes because they feel they have no other options. This was pure greed and arrogance. Thompson’s sympathy seems misplaced. But maybe he thinks what George did wasn’t wrong, which is a scary thought. George was his lieutenant governor after all.

Sparky, why do you and others misinformed continue to blame Ryan for the dreadful accident that took place on an open road due to an truck part that came lose from a truck being trailed by the van. The accident was NOT caused by driver error; a defective part in the truck did!

Sparky, why do you and others misinformed continue to blame Ryan for the dreadful accident that took place on an open road due to an truck part that came lose from a truck being trailed by the van. The accident was NOT caused by driver error; a defective part in the truck did!

Our state, and we collectively and individually, experience shame when those from out of state joke about how corrupt our state is. “So will your next Governor go to jail as well?” is a skinkin’ joke I am sick of and will probably hear for the balance of my professional career. I am thankful for Quinn’s “boy scout” approach to things. It might not get things accomplished that need to be done, but at least I don’t go to bed wondering whether he is going to jail.

Have to agree with those who think that in this case, a halfway house is silly. Put a monitor bracelet on him and send him home. Still feel that he accomplished more in his term than either Blago or Quinn have…

I wrote about the extent to which Ryan can be blamed for the deaths of the Willis children in a Jan., 2004, column.

Key passage:

When (truck driver Ricardo) Guzman didn’t pull over to check his rig, it was the last link in a chain of failures and oversights that included the company that made the part that fell off, the company that leased the chassis, the company that maintained the chassis, the company that supervised Guzman, the company that oversaw dispatching in the truck yard and the company that installed an insufficiently shielded gas tank on its line of mini-vans, each of which paid at least $1 million and as much as $50 million to settle the Willis suit.

The assumption that an ordinarily competent trucker would have heeded the warnings Guzman received makes the secretary of state’s office under Ryan a key link in that chain.

Not to minimize or to magnify that link, just to put it in perspective: A little more good and a little less bad anywhere along the line and those kids would be alive today.

The whole thing was beyond ugly and tragic. Bribery and greed can have sickening consequences and ‘ol George must’ve pondered that reality more than a few times over the last 5 years. And thank you to Eric Zorn for re-adding pertinent perspective–it was all connected and Ryan was one of the biggest Dominoes which had lined up toward that immensely sad, fateful day, having largely created that wrongheaded, arrogant culture of corruption. All Illinoisans were then, once again, both humiliated and deeply disillusioned witnessing yet another politician with such immense power having gone awry as a result of it–he just really needs to fade into obsurity now, and I, for one, hope he does…to refer to the entire nightmare merely as yet another “sad chapter” in our beloved “Land of Lincoln” is being quite kind. It hurts. It hurt then and it hurts now. It will always hurt.

–All Illinoisans were then, once again, both humiliated and deeply disillusioned witnessing yet another politician with such immense power having gone awry as a result of it–

All Illinoisans, once and for all, should take responsibility for their society — government and business.

They’re not victims, they’re a part of it.

Ryan and Blago were elected. Ryan was old school and no mystery.

For crying out loud, Blago was re-elected when any fool could see that he was a massive crook and had a target on his back.

Two hundred years ago, this state was largely a wilderness. One hundred years ago, it was raw laissez-faire capitalism. Fifty years ago and today, people come from all over the world to make a buck and could care less about anything else.

The folks who came here to make a go of it weren’t all singing kum-ba-yah and debating ethics.

Read Masters, Dreiser, Lardner, Terkel, Royko or your daily newspaper. On and on and on.

This ain’t Bugtussel — although there’s plenty of corruption there, too, in the Small-Town World.

Gov. Ryan paid his dues and did what most IL politicians do and got caught. As for the Willis Children, don’t even go there! (See what happens when illegals get drivers licenses.) Gov. Ryan was a good man and treated many with respect and when he gave his word HE KEPT IT! With the former and current governors, George Ryan was much more of a governor than they will ever be. He could move forward and work with everyone. He also was an excellent LISTENER. I pray he can live out the rest of his life in health with his family. As for the other question on pensions ~ http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2012/02/09/house-of-representatives-finally-gets-it-re-pensions-for-convicted-congressional-felons/

OW ~ just how do you think illegals are going to be able “read” (english) our vehicle laws & signs in order to drive? The driver of this horrific accident may not have “understood” what people were trying to “communicate” to him. Not being witty…just using common sense.

Anyone who argues that George Ryan created a culture of corruption in the SoS office is either ignorant or lying. Employees at SoS get arrested for taking bribes and illegally issuing licenses today, as they did under George Ryan, Jim Edgar, Alan Dixon, and every other SoS as far back as I can remember. I don’t believe that makes the current Secretary guilty of creating or tolerating corruption. It speak much more to the human condition, there and everywhere.

==OW ~ just how do you think illegals are going to be able “read” (english) our vehicle laws & signs in order to drive? The driver of this horrific accident may not have “understood” what people were trying to “communicate” to him. Not being witty…just using common sense.==

I should ignore this, but I won’t. See you in church on Sunday (I like the First Epistle to the Corinthians — and the Niners).

What language are your road signs in, compadre?

It may have been a victory for you to master “Stop,” but other than that, what are we talking about?

When you’re flying down the interstate, and folks are signaling at you, does your spider sense register something the rest of us don’t?

Enough now. George Ryan did not kill the Willis kids. That’s just a despicable position, advanced by sanctimonious cynics for lurid, personal benefits.

A flunky in the Secretary of State’s office took money to issue a funky license, then claimed it was under duress to pay the vig to the patrone. Bauer tried to cover it up.

The accident came. A few seconds here, a few seconds there, it never would have happened. It’s unthinkable.

The Willis’ can lay it on anyone they want. They have the right. The rest of us don’t have the right to appropriate their sorrow.

But we do have to take the responsibility for our government.

Want to hear a dirty little secret? The SOS office, for decades, under Democrats and Republicans, was notorious for making driver’s license accommodations for certain folks.

Whether it was money or clout, it could happen. Not at the top. But in the middle. Not that the folks at the top didn’t know it was going on.

It was standard operating procedure.

I’m fifty, and I can’t imagine anyone who ever lived in Illinois didn’t know that. But we elected the folks, some of the most popular elected folks ever, endorsed and celebrated by the media, year after year.

Thank you Steven. It also happened in about 23 or so other states. Word, this is my last comment on this so take it with a grain of salt. We have signs that direct us which way to go, highway names, or “do not pass on shoulder”, etc. It is not about just a red STOP sign. The legals took their tests, jumped through hoops to become legal..just saying. Regardless, like I said before ” I pray Gov. Ryan can live out the rest of his life in health with his family. “